CultureGrrlhttp://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl
Lee Rosenbaum's cultural commentaryTue, 31 Mar 2015 02:59:04 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=184Extolling Viñoly: Q&A with Bill Griswold on Cleveland’s New Additions & How He’ll Pay for Themhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artsjournal/XHaF/~3/wYRHzUXyKFw/extolling-vinoly-qa-with-bill-griswold-on-clevelands-new-additions-how-hell-pay-for-them.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/extolling-vinoly-qa-with-bill-griswold-on-clevelands-new-additions-how-hell-pay-for-them.html#respondTue, 31 Mar 2015 02:58:02 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/?p=17267William Griswold came to the Cleveland Museum of Art ready to party. With the museum celebrating its centennial in 2016, “there will be the requisite parties all year long, starting early in the year but certainly reaching a fevered pitch in June [the anniversary month],” he told me over lunch while visiting to work on […]]]>

William Griswold came to the Cleveland Museum of Art ready to party. With the museum celebrating its centennial in 2016, “there will be the requisite parties all year long, starting early in the year but certainly reaching a fevered pitch in June [the anniversary month],” he told me over lunch while visiting to work on two articles, including this Wall Street Journal review of the museum’s current Senufo show.

Bill Griswold, talking with a staff member about Family Game Night, in which he participatedPhoto by Lee Rosenbaum

Looking ahead to more substantive centennial plans, Bill revealed:

We hope to bring important loans of individual works of art from all over to Cleveland for an exhibition in our permanent collection galleries, as part of the celebration. Cleveland is a generous lender with a wonderful collection, so our sister institutions have expressed eagerness to help us out. In addition, we’re hoping to celebrate major gifts to the collection and to launch a whole series of behind-the scenes visits both for members and for the general audience.

In Cleveland, he also inherited an incomplete capital campaign for the Rafael Viñoly-designed expansion, not to mention the messy business of what I had previously termed Manna from Hanna—the deplorable diversion to the capital campaign of up to $75 million over 10 years from the income (not principal) of four funds (most notably one established by mega-supporter Leonard Hanna) that were specifically designated by the deceased donors for acquisitions, not construction.

Over lunch at a corner table in Provenance, the museum’s restaurant, we discussed Griswold’s views on Viñoly’s building, the status of the capital campaign, and how he may partly redress the problematic decision (made before his arrival) to override donor intent (with court approval) by raiding acquisitions money:

ROSENBAUM: How much have your raised towards the capital campaign for the Viñoly expansion?

GRISWOLD: We’re very close to $300 million. As you know, the cost of the project was $320 million. $350 million was the original budget.

ROSENBAUM: So it came in under budget?

GRISWOLD: Absolutely. We hope to conclude the campaign within the next several months. I’d like to see it done by the summer.

ROSENBAUM: What have the new additions accomplished for the museum?

GRISWOLD: I think that the building is an enormous success. I think it has rationalized the layout of the museum in a way that was badly needed. Like so many institutions, it had grown in a very organic way over long period of time and had a rather confusing gallery layout. This was completely rethought and simplified in Rafael Viñoly’s plan.

I believe that architecturally it [Viñoly’s addition] is an extremely elegant building, hardly unassertive, but at the same time extraordinarily respectful of its preexisting neighbors—the 1916 building and the Marcel Breuer building, arguably two masterpieces of architecture, which Viñoly has not disregarded but, instead, has celebrated.

Cleveland Museum’s Rafael Viñoly-designed East Wing, which opened in June 2009Photo by Lee Rosenbaum

Viñoly’s conception of his addition was as a ring in which the jewel was the 1916 building and the atrium is, in a way, a celebration of the façade of the original building. I love that about this expansion and I think it is reflected in the fact that the museum has two principal entrances, one of which is open primarily in the summer—the entrance to the 1916 building—and the other the entrance to the Marcel Breuer building.

Neither of them is the Rafael Viñoly building. I think that is a reflection of the extent to which he was very sensitive to the preceding architecture.

ROSENBAUM: In the fundraising, they wound up having to tap the income from endowments that were intended for acquisitions. Will those ever be reimbursed?

GRISWOLD: We don’t know for sure. I think we are going to need those monies to close out the campaign, so that we can move on. It’s important for others who are less familiar with this situation to understand that this is the draw from part of a very large portion of our endowment that is allocated to acquisitions. It is not the principal and it’s not permanent: It’s not going to go on indefinitely. But it is hard for me to see how we can actually reimburse the draw.

ROSENBAUM: So the $75 million is going to be gone?

GRISWOLD: It’s impossible to say how the campaign is going to go. But I would be comfortable with this approach: using what was allocated [from the acquisition endowments’ income] for the building project and simultaneously launching an effort to augment our endowed and spendable acquisition funds. I think, frankly, that’s easier than reimbursement, but it would have the same effect.

ROSENBAUM: Why is it easier?

GRISWOLD: Because I think people want to create their own funds. And then, eventually, you’d have a more robust accessions fund.

It’s important to add a footnote: The Cleveland Museum of Art has one of the most robust accessions funds of any museum anywhere in the world, even now.

But the museum’s African art curator, Constantine Petridis, had a didactic, as well as aesthetic, agenda in how he orchestrated this display.

Constantine PetridisPhoto by Lee Rosenbaum

Although he chose the objects for their beauty and power, Petridis kicked off the presentation in a way that struck me, at first, as wrongfooted—emphasizing the impact that these sculptures had on modern artists such as Picasso and Léger. As he later explained to me, he was interested not only in focusing on the objects themselves, but also in elucidating Westerners’ historic perceptions of this material.

At the beginning of my WSJ review, I note that it’s a small step from the African architectonic construction of the power couple (from a private collection) confronting visitors in the introductory gallery to the European Cubists’ deconstruction that objects like these helped to inspire.

Here are two views:

ALL PHOTOS BY LEE ROSENBAUM

The show’s exploration of Senufo art’s historic reception in the U.S. carries into the second gallery, which reassembles selections from the first show of such works in the U.S.—a 1963 survey organized for New York’s now-defunct Museum of Primitive Art by its then director, Robert Goldwater, originally a modern-art specialist. (As I mention in my review, the art that has come to be known as “Senufo” is from the three-corner region of Ivory Coast, Mali and Burkina Faso.)

Catalogue cover from Museum of Primitive Art’s 1963 “Senufo” show

Below is the most striking ensemble in Cleveland’s recreated display from that landmark show. On the left is the female figure (from a private collection) adorned with red abrus seeds and white cowrie shells that Goldwater had described as one of the finest examples not just of Senufo art but of all African sculpture.

In the middle is a similar (less graceful) piece from the Dallas Museum of Art; at the right is a very familiar (to me) hornbill, with its phallic beak touching its pregnant belly—usually a highlight of the Metropolitan Museum’s African art collection, bequeathed to that museum by Nelson Rockefeller:

The exaggerated pendulousness of the breasts and the stolid expressionlessness of the maternity figures in the carved-wood Senufo examples bespeak their possible ritual function as “the image of the Ancient Mother, the central deity of the poro initiations cycle,” according to the label….

The Cleveland Museum’s own superb maternity figure, featured on the cover of the show’s catalog, was thought to have been carried on the head of a tyekpa member during funeral ceremonies. The glistening oil on the breast and baby is suggestive of mother’s milk, but was also applied to other wood figures as a spiritual offering and an agent of preservation.

Cleveland Museum of Art

Described in the exhibition as major “patrons of the arts,” these [poro] associations were the originators of many objects in the show, including the large assortment of “rhythm pounders,” whose peculiar form befits their ritual function. Mounted on round bases, these funerary figures feature improbably attenuated torsos (think Giacometti) and were held by their long, spindly arms, to be thumped on the ground during deceased poro members’ processions to the grave.

Simonis Collection, Germany

More frightful than beautiful, the show’s most haunting objects are wooden masks and figures that incorporate agglomerations of assorted objects and organic materials. The spookiest are the two “Tell the Truth” oracle figures, used in divination rituals to uncover misdeeds and punish wrongdoers. Their carved wooden bodies are concealed under shroudlike, encrusted cloth coverings, with porcupine quills and feathers jutting from the tops of their heads.

[As in aside: The Cleveland Museum’s director, William Griswold, told me these were this favorite pieces in the show.]

Left: private collection; Right: Collection of Holly and David Ross

Fearsome but fascinating is the centerpiece of the final gallery—an “accumulative helmet mask” in the form of a sharp-toothed, open-jawed animal head. Over time, it acquired additions of glass (including the base of a wine glass), antelope horns, a bird’s skull, fiber and mirrors. If you look closely, you’ll spot a small Senufo-style wood figurine, jutting forward like a ship’s figurehead from the center of this dense, chaotic assemblage.

Helmet mask, Dallas Museum of Art

If the show whets your appetite for more, head upstairs to Cleveland’s own African art holdings, among which I immediately recognized as Senufo this piece, which closely resembles the mask that the WSJ chose to illustrate my article:

Helmet Mask, early to mid-1900s, Ivory CoastCleveland Museum of Art

Its label says that this wood carving was “intended to impress and terrify” and its “fearsome aesthetic alludes to the mask’s power as an anti-sorcery device.”

You don’t have to believe in sorcery to appreciate its aesthetic and feel its power.

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/boffo-senufo-companion-images-for-my-wsj-piece-on-cleveland-museums-african-show.html/feed0http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/boffo-senufo-companion-images-for-my-wsj-piece-on-cleveland-museums-african-show.htmlMore Metropolitan Museum Good News: Elated Over Ellsworth, Chipper About Chipperfieldhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artsjournal/XHaF/~3/_L8twrIU7Ls/more-metropolitan-museum-good-news-elated-over-ellsworth-chipper-about-chipperfield.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/more-metropolitan-museum-good-news-elated-over-ellsworth-chipper-about-chipperfield.html#respondTue, 24 Mar 2015 22:29:03 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/?p=17191While Christie’s last week was triumphantly totaling up some $131.6 million in sales from the estate of the consummate Chinese art connoisseur, collector and dealer, Robert Ellsworth, the Metropolitan Museum’s Asian Art Department chairman, Maxwell “Mike” Hearn, was quietly anticipating some Ellsworth worth for his own institution. “It’s a new golden age,” Hearn told me […]]]>

“It’s a new golden age,” Hearn told me excitedly during our brief chat last week in the museum’s Astor Court, just before the Met’s press announcement of the public phase of its $70-million fundraising campaign to enhance his department’s staff, programs, collections and facilities.

The Met has already raised some $31.5 million towards its goal, led by $15 million for new curatorial and conservations staff and programming from trustee emeritus Oscar Tang.

The Met’s Asian art curators, with Hearn at center; director Tom Campbell and lead donor Oscar Tang to his left; John Guy, curator of South and Southeast Asian art, at photo’s far leftPhoto by Lee Rosenbaum

Hearn compared the newly announced gifts of nearly 1,300 Asian works from Florence and Herbert Irving; and more than 300 Japanese and Korean masterworks bequeathed by Mary Griggs Burke (along with a $12.5 million endowment) with the windfalls from Gilded Age benefactors who had jump-started the Asian collection during the Met’s formative years.

When I asked him whether the new arrivals would also include some pieces from Robert Ellsworth‘s holdings, Hearn revealed a coup that had not yet been publicly announced: Several highly important paintings from the late dealer/collector’s residence, retained for his personal delectation, would soon have a new home at the Met (after lawyers had hammered out final details). They are, Hearn told me, “the cream of his collection.”

During his lifetime, Ellsworth had donated numerous works to the Met, including modern Chinese paintings, as well as this late Ming or early Qing three-drawer altar coffer and candlesticks, which was installed just behind the podium from which Hearn spoke…

Photo by Lee Rosenbaum

…and this Ming Dynasty “Qin” (seven-stringed zither):

Photo by Lee Rosenbaum

The planned upgrade to the Asian department’s facilities was announced less than a week after the news of the Met’s most sweeping capital project since the 2011 opening of its new Islamic art galleries and the 2012 opening of its completed new American Wing—the redesign by British architect David Chipperfield of the Southwest Wing for modern and contemporary art.

According to the Met’s press release, the Chipperfield project will also “potentially” include the redesign of adjacent galleries for art from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, as well as “additional operational spaces”

The Met said that its architectural selection was based on “three criteria: vision, experience, and compatibility. David Chipperfield’s global architectural experience and sensibility, along with his commitment to the collaborative aspect of creating architecture, make him a perfect partner on this milestone project.”

He was widely praised for his 2013 addition to the St. Louis Art Museum, which I got to see only from the outside, while its galleries were still undergoing installation.

It contrasts. It doesn’t try to imitate the Cass Gilbert building, which I think is a good thing; you don’t want to slavishly imitate that. It’s very different, and yet I think it is respectful….

The architect did something that was clearly of today….Chipperfield is not doing a “look-at-me” kind of building….It’s trying to stay respectfully in the background, and yet provide something new….I like that approach.

Similarly, architecture critic James Russellrecently described Chipperfield as “an architect with a strong but respectful esthetic—a rare combination these days.”

I also liked his more under-the-radar Figge Art Museum in Davenport, IA, which “was designed to be flooded,” as its then director, Sean O’Harrow, humorously but truthfully told me. “The parking garage is intended to contain the overflow,” of the Mississippi River, Sean explained.

Figge Art MuseumPhoto by Lee Rosenbaum

Chipperfield also happens to belong to a group that seems to have had an inside track for several important appointments under Met director Tom Campbell—Brits or Americans transplanted to Great Britain. Also in that category was the late London-based, American-born architect, Rick Mather, whose 2010 expansion for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts I had favorably reviewed for the Wall Street Journal.

“We don’t comment on this kind of thing,” responded Harold Holzer, the Met’s senior vice president for public affairs. “We have made our selection and our announcement.”

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/more-metropolitan-museum-good-news-elated-over-ellsworth-chipper-about-chipperfield.html/feed0http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/more-metropolitan-museum-good-news-elated-over-ellsworth-chipper-about-chipperfield.htmlMysterious Disappearance: Michael Taylor’s Unceremonious Departure from Dartmouth’s Hood Museum UPDATEDhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artsjournal/XHaF/~3/jROvW8Rc2Xw/mysterious-disappearance-michael-taylors-unceremonious-departure-from-dartmouths-hood-museum.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/mysterious-disappearance-michael-taylors-unceremonious-departure-from-dartmouths-hood-museum.html#respondThu, 19 Mar 2015 17:44:55 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/?p=17162UPDATE: Michael Taylor promptly replied to my post: This is an ongoing situation and all I can say right now is that: “I have left my position as Director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College to pursue other career opportunities.” Under mysterious circumstances, Michael Taylor has abruptly exited Dartmouth’s Hood Museum, which […]]]>

UPDATE: Michael Taylor promptly replied to my post:

This is an ongoing situation and all I can say right now is that: “I have left my position as Director of the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College to pursue other career opportunities.”

Under mysterious circumstances, Michael Taylor has abruptly exited Dartmouth’s Hood Museum, which he directed since 2011, after having served as curator of modern art at the Philadelphia Museum.

So far, no one is saying why he’s left the building.

Michael Taylor and “Men of Fire” curator Sarah Powers, his wife, in happier days at DartmouthPhoto by Lee Rosenbaum

I have made no secret of my admiration for Taylor and was both baffled and dismayed by this news.

I have sent queries to several sources. All I know at this writing is what I read this morning in Trouble in the Hood, a post by Joseph Asch, picked up by the Boston Globe, which first appeared on Dartblog, a daily news publication produced by the college’s alumni and students. (Asch is Class of ’79.)

Dartblog reported:

Rumors are swirling about that Michael Taylor, the erstwhile director of the Hood Museum of Art, has been dismissed — just months before the start of the museum’s $50 million expansion and renovation. This terse, somewhat awkward e-mail was sent out by Provost Dever yesterday:

March 16, 2015

Dear One Dartmouth,

I write to tell you that Michael Taylor is no longer in the role of director of the Hood Museum of Art.

While we conduct a nationwide search for the next Hood director, I’m pleased to announce that, beginning immediately, Juliette Bianco ‘94, deputy director at the museum, will serve as its interim director.

Juliette has had an impressive tenure at the Hood, serving as assistant director from 2005 until 2013, when she was appointed deputy director. Before that, she served as exhibitions manager, a job she began in 1998. After graduating from Dartmouth, Juliette received a master’s degree in art history from the University of Chicago.

Sincerely, Carolyn Dever Provost

When I requested further details, I got this non-response from Dartmouth spokesperson Justin Anderson:

You are correct. Michael Taylor is no longer in the role of director. Deputy director Juliette Bianco is serving as interim director while we conduct a national search to fill the role on a permanent basis.

As you know, Dartmouth is fortunate to have a museum of the Hood’s caliber as part of our institution. In addition to the important exhibits, such as “Men of Fire” that you reference [reviewed by me in 2012 for the Wall Street Journal and CultureGrrl], it adds a critical dimension to scholarship and research by students and faculty in the arts, and spurs creativity in the work of every department and discipline at Dartmouth.

We look forward to a very bright future for the Hood.

In a subsequent email, which ignored the questions asked in my detailed follow-up, Anderson said only this:

Dartmouth is committed to the expansion and renewal of the Hood. In fact, earlier this month, the College’s Board of Trustees approved $8.5 million for completion of design and preconstruction activities for the project.

As it happens, the museum has been closed since Monday for “annual building maintenance, to reopen on Mar. 30. When approved by the college’s trustees in 2014, construction of the Hood’s expansion, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien, was expected to begin in April 2016, with completion in 2018 (as reported in the student newspaper). Dartblog reported that the capital project was to commence in “just months.” Anderson, the college’s spokesperson, declined to provide clarification about this discrepancy when I requested it.

When Taylor had first talked to me about the Hood’s expansion in 2012, he had said it would open in Spring 2015. (That would be now.)

Let’s join Michael in better days, at the Philadelphia Museum, where he was the star of one of my most popular CultureGrrl Videos ever. Here’s his elucidation of the Whitney Museum’s “The Artist and His Mother,” a highlight of the Philadelphia Museum’s majestic 2009 Gorky retrospective, which he brilliantly curated:

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/mysterious-disappearance-michael-taylors-unceremonious-departure-from-dartmouths-hood-museum.html/feed0http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/mysterious-disappearance-michael-taylors-unceremonious-departure-from-dartmouths-hood-museum.htmlWeiss’ Wishes: Dan’s Plans for the Metropolitan Museum–Part IIhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artsjournal/XHaF/~3/o3Xke1QB2KA/weiss-wishes-dans-plans-for-the-metropolitan-museum-part-ii.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/weiss-wishes-dans-plans-for-the-metropolitan-museum-part-ii.html#respondTue, 17 Mar 2015 19:49:25 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/?p=17140Part I is here. During our recent phone conversation, Daniel Weiss, soon-to-be president of the Metropolitan Museum, repeatedly (and understandably) deflected my persistent queries seeking specific details about what he hopes to accomplish at the Met. “I’m not there yet!” he patiently reminded me. What Weiss did convey to me was a deep, sympathetic understanding […]]]>

During our recent phone conversation, Daniel Weiss, soon-to-be president of the Metropolitan Museum, repeatedly (and understandably) deflected my persistent queries seeking specific details about what he hopes to accomplish at the Met.

“I’m not there yet!” he patiently reminded me.

Time to pack up again?Dan Weiss unpacking cartons in his Haverford office, upon his arrival in July 2013

What Weiss did convey to me was a deep, sympathetic understanding of the Met’s complex operations and activities, as well as a profound respect for what its professionals have accomplished. Although he’s “not there yet” physically, he seems already there in spirit.

In this lightly edited transcript of the second part of our conversation, Weiss shares some details about the Met’s five-year plan and discusses what he may bring to the task of realizing those goals. He also addresses the second major controversy of his brief tenure as president of Haverford College, which I spotlighted in my initial post about his Met appointment—the blow-up over the selection of Robert Birgeneau, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, as an honorary degree recipient and speaker for last May’s commencement ceremony.

We’ll start there and move on to his hopes for his new life in the museum world:

ROSENBAUM: What’s your take on what happened with the commencement and how might you do things differently, if you had it to do over again?

WEISS: In the case of the Birgeneau matter, what troubled me the most from the outset was that although there were legitimate reasons [a clash between students and police that turned violent] to find the candidacy of Robert Birgeneau objectionable, we have at Haverford a process for vetting all candidates. They [the selection committee, composed of students, faculty, staff, and board members] all knew these things about Birgeneau and felt he was worthy.

So when this issue was raised, it was, in part, a question of: To what extent do we respect what shared governance means? We delegated that responsibility to colleagues who made this recommendation.

Two students came to me and said, “We don’t like this guy.” I said, “Why don’t you write a respectful letter to him, raising your concerns and inviting him to a substantive discussion on these issues?” They wrote a letter that was, in my view, completely inconsistent with the values of our institution….I shared it with Dr. Birgeneau, as I gave them my word I would do, and he bailed. The opportunity for a shared learning experience was lost.

ROSENBAUM: In what ways will your presidency differ from that of your predecessor, Emily Rafferty, perhaps drawing on your art history background?

WEISS: The major one, I think, is the vision of creating one museum. There are three great objectives to the museum in the next five years:

—To enhance access to the collections and to widen the audience, so that all people feel that this great and elite institution is their institution, whether they’re art historians or casual visitors.

—To make the collections as available as they can be to people.

—To create a professional standard at the museum that represents the best administration standards in the world. It may be that the Met’s already there, but that’s a goal to maintain and build upon. I will help Tom [Campbell, the Met’s director] create one museum, where people feel that they all work for one institution, not one that has curators on one side and administrators on the other.

ROSENBAUM: What are your specific ideas on enhancing access to the collection and widening the audience?

WEISS: I think it’s fair to say that the challenge the Met faces is that very often others don’t think of it as their museum. They think: “I don’t have any training in art history. Those stairs are huge. I don’t have enough money to go to that museum.” So they don’t go.

How do we make clear that this museum is a community resource? Already the museum is producing extraordinary digital features on the website including films and other ways of engaging kids and non-art historian types.

I think continuing to focus on market development and communication of what the museum represents for everyone is a comprehensive effort. It has to do with collections, exhibitions, marketing, way-finding, all of those things that make access comfortable and easy. That’s one thing that they are doing and that I will help them to do.

ROSENBAUM: Do you have any fresh ideas to bring to that?

WEISS: I don’t have any new ideas about how that should be done. I’m not brought in to substitute my judgment for theirs; it’s really to build on the work that they’re doing.

ROSENBAUM: Do you have any ideas of ways to reach out to the communities that you’re trying to attract?

WEISS: We’re doing some market segmentation work now to understand better who is coming, who isn’t coming, whether there are ways we can extend outreach to the other boroughs of New York. Are there obstacles we can address that might help to make it easier for them to come? All of that work is underway. My job is to get caught up and then try to contribute.

ROSENBAUM: What are your ideas for making the collection available to more people?

WEISS: I think the most obvious place where that work is unfolding is digitally. The Met has something like 40 million hits a year on its website. There are very innovative new ways of accessing the collection, combining it in different ways, and hopefully stimulating greater levels of interest in seeing the real thing.

The other [aspect of this] relates to the way things are installed and exhibited. Opening up the Breuer [the Whitney Museum’s Breuer-designed former flagship, being leased by the Met] and having a more visible presence in contemporary art are a part of that. We want to put contemporary art in a historical context where people can understand modernism as inevitably the consequence of what went before, even if as a reaction against it.

ROSENBAUM: You also said you wanted to improve professional standards. How?

WEISS: I have a track record, in 15 years of academic leadership at three institutions [Johns Hopkins, Lafayette, Haverford], of bringing discipline and an integrated approach to financial management, resource allocation and operation engineering. Once I have a better sense of how those operations work, I’ll do my best to contribute new and interesting ideas.

What effective leaders do is not walk in the door with ideas about change. They come with a skill set and a capacity to listen and a highly developed critical capability. I will listen carefully and help people advance their objectives more effectively than they have before.

ROSENBAUM: What are some of the things you did at Haverford that you feel might have some application to the Met?

WEISS: In [not quite] two years at Haverford, we have done a tremendous amount. We wrote a strategic plan that called together all the disparate aspects of the college and unified the community around a singular vision. Among other things, it consisted of four major capital projects: major renovations to the library and the biology building, a new center for technology, and a new building for music. Those have all been identified and largely funded in the time that I’ve been here.

That’s probably the most ambitious capital-project plan for the college in its history. And we wrote and developed financial models that allow the budget to be balanced over a sustained period of time. We’ve also replaced all of our technological infrastructure in the time that I’ve been here.

ROSENBAUM: How much did you raise for the capital campaign?

WEISS: The goal is $225 million and we are currently at $195 million. So we’re almost there. Before I leave [this summer], I’m hoping that we’re close to $200 million.

ROSENBAUM: When did this begin?

Several years ago, before I came.

ROSENBAUM: How much money would you say was brought to the college under your auspices?

WEISS: I don’t know. Quite a lot of that, including the largest gift in the history of the college [$25 million from board chair Howard Lutnick]. I raised the largest gift in the history of Lafayette as well.

ROSENBAUM: At the Met, fundraising will be partly under your purview, but I understand they’ll also be hiring a senior vice president for institutional advancement.

WEISS: Yes. That person will report to me. The idea is that Emily Rafferty had many great virtues and one of them was that she was extraordinarily successful as a fundraiser. Those are skills that are not replicable by anyone, including me. So we want to supplement the fundraising side with a senior person who can help Tom Campbell, myself and others, in the absence of Emily, who is arguably the greatest fundraiser in museum history.

ROSENBAUM: Do you have a learning curve in terms of managing an institution with as big a budget, staff and complexity as the Met?

WEISS: It is an order of magnitude greater than Haverford; Johns Hopkins [where he was dean of the School of Arts and Sciences] was larger; Lafayette [where he was president] was in between. I think that large, complicated organizations all operate on the same basic principles.

ROSENBAUM: How do you think that your art history credentials may help you and the Met?

WEISS: I think it creates a very high level of understanding of and sensitivity to the core mission of the institution. It will help us to build one Met, by bringing the administrative side into sync with the curatorial side, perhaps more than in the past. That’s my hope.

I love both sides and I have lived on both sides. So I’m hopeful that I can advance that objective.

So are we.

My own view is that university presidents, combining scholarly knowledge and managerial acumen, are especially well suited to lead major cultural institutions.

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/weiss-wishes-dans-plans-for-the-metropolitan-museum-part-ii.html/feed0http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/weiss-wishes-dans-plans-for-the-metropolitan-museum-part-ii.htmlBridging the Scholarly/Administrative Divide: My Q&A with Daniel Weiss, Metropolitan Museum’s Next President—Part Ihttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artsjournal/XHaF/~3/e38zNd2WltI/bridging-the-scholarlyadministrative-divide-my-qa-with-daniel-weiss-metropolitan-museums-next-president-part-i.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/bridging-the-scholarlyadministrative-divide-my-qa-with-daniel-weiss-metropolitan-museums-next-president-part-i.html#respondFri, 13 Mar 2015 18:13:20 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/?p=17124Part II is here. In our wide-ranging phone conversation yesterday, Daniel Weiss demonstrated analytic acumen, unforced candor and fluid articulateness that should serve him well as the next president of the Metropolitan Museum. The first thing that impressed me about Dan was his willingness to talk to me at all, in light of yesterday’s CultureGrrl […]]]>

In our wide-ranging phone conversation yesterday, Daniel Weiss demonstrated analytic acumen, unforced candor and fluid articulateness that should serve him well as the next president of the Metropolitan Museum.

Daniel Weiss, outside his office at Haverford College

The first thing that impressed me about Dan was his willingness to talk to me at all, in light of yesterday’s CultureGrrl post, in which I dredged up controversies that had erupted during his tenure as Haverford College’s president.

Not only did he tackle these issues head-on, but, as you’ll see below, he was the one who initiated our discussion of the first contretemps, involving student debt. I came away with the feeling that Weiss has a penchant for taking lemons and making lemonade—not a bad leadership skill.

More importantly, he discussed (in broad terms) what he hopes to achieve at the Met. Below is a lightly edited transcript of Part I of our conversation:

ROSENBAUM: The Met is poised on the brink of major transformations—capital projects, technological innovations, redefining itself as more focused than ever on modern and contemporary art, and probably some things you know about that I don’t. How and why do you feel that you have the right set of skills and knowledge to bring something important to these efforts?

WEISS: For me, in many ways, this is a culmination of a series of career moves that I’ve had, which are related to a longstanding interest. So it seemed kind of natural.

My entire career has been devoted to the nexus between administrative leadership and an interest in arts and culture. I’ve done that on both sides of the divide between the academic side of scholarly art history and the administrative side. I had an active interest in museums from the time I began my career: When I was in graduate school for business, getting my MBA, I actually did an independent study on museums. I went around the country and met with museum directors in the early ‘80s, because I was interested in that issue.

ROSENBAUM: What was the subject of the independent study, and what did you conclude from it?

WEISS: It was about the role of museum leadership and how it was changing at the time, in terms of the skill sets that were required: to what extent it was a business leadership job, to what extent it was a scholarly or cultural leadership job and how those issues were changing. This was in the age of the emergence of blockbusters. So [I examined] to what extent the finances and economics and markets of art museums were changing, and what did it mean for the institutions’ leadership and administration.

ROSENBAUM: How has it changed in the decades between then and now? How do you feel it has continued to evolve?

WEISS: “Evolve” is the right word. I think it has continued to become increasingly complicated. That’s true in higher education as well. We operate in an increasingly fast-paced commercial environment, where we have to maintain a commitment to the core mission and values of our institutions. But at the same time, we’ve got a difficult and demanding marketplace.

We have to balance our budgets. We have to face economic pressure. So running a large art museum today is a vastly more complicated enterprise than it was in 1984. I’ll bet you that the staff numbers at large museums like the Met have doubled in that time. That’s because of all these new things that have to be done.

Also, technology has changed the way people interact with art and how they think about objects, so museums have to keep up with all of that.

ROSENBAUM: Did you get your PhD in art history before or after the MBA?

WEISS: After. At college, I had an interest in art history, learned some languages [a useful skill for the Met’s presidency] and got an MA [in art history]. After the MA, I got an MBA with the thought that I’d have a museum career. After the MBA, I didn’t go into museums right away; I did business stuff [as consultant with Booz, Allen & Hamilton, 1985-89].

Then I thought what I’d really love to do is to have a substantive engagement with the history of art. So I got a PhD, had an academic career and wrote books [including “Art and Crusade in the Age of Saint Louis,” Cambridge University Press, 1998].

ROSENBAUM: How do you see the division of labor between you and [Met director] Tom Campbell? What do you see as the intersections and the divisions between your responsibilities?

WEISS: For it to work well, it really is a partnership. Tom is the director and the CEO and he sets the strategic vision for the institution. My job as president is to help advance that mission and serve as a partner in overseeing mostly the administrative and operational sides of the museum. So the curatorial division, education, conservation and the library report to Tom, and the other divisions report to me.

The goal is to make sure those are aligned—Tom’s vision and mine—in one museum that is a large, complicated but well integrated enterprise. For that to work, those areas I just defined, which report separately, also have to be connected to each other. That requires that Tom and I talk all the time and that we have a shared view of how to move forward.

ROSENBAUM: I take it that the chemistry was right, since you have to work so closely together.

WEISS: Indeed. I have enormous respect for him, I can learn from him and I think I can contribute something, because all of the things I’ve done relate to the ways in which one can develop and implement professional administrative standards in institutions that are mission-driven.

ROSENBAUM: What are some specific ways in which you think you can contribute?

WEISS: As I have done at the three institutions in which I have had an administrative role [Johns Hopkins, Lafayette and Haverford], I think there are always opportunities to develop new and innovative and best practices for financial management and operational support.

I consider myself a very good team builder, so one of the things I’d like to do is to find ways of connecting people in the different units of the Met, which has thousands of employees, so the financial people are working more closely with the curatorial people and the facilities people, to develop a greater shared sense of things.

You mentioned [in this CultureGrrl post] the issue of the no-loan policy. There’s more to that story. When I arrived at Haverford, that policy had been under discussion. That policy had been implemented right around the time of the downturn in 2008. Haverford’s losses during that period were material…

ROSENBAUM: …as they were for everyone.

WEISS: Yes, and even perhaps a bit more so. Sustaining that [no-loan] program was very difficult and, indeed, was seen by the board to be untenable before I arrived. The rate of increase of financial aid was several percentage points greater each year than the increase in revenues for the budget. So it was a doomed process.

I was brought in, in part, to build a financial model that is sustainable. We put together a 10-year financial model that was intended to take a comprehensive view of all of the things that we do, and make sure that we made the kinds of hard decisions that are required for that budget to be balanced every year.

We concluded that the no-loan policy that we had was not sustainable. So what did we do? We put in place the program you described [in my CultureGrrl post]. The average student loans at Haverford are among the lowest in the country: Total student debt for a graduate on average is about $12,000. But the students raised legitimate concerns [about the reduction in direct financial aid].

The epilogue is that we developed an idea to raise an endowed fund for student debt relief: For any student who graduates with debt and can’t pay it, because they want to work for an NGO or because they don’t have other ways of paying it, the endowed fund for debt relief will provide resources for 30 or 40 graduates. It is seen by the students as a wonderful way to address their concerns in a cost-effective manner. I’m very proud of that.

These are hard issues and finding ways forward is part of what I think administrators do: How do you take a problem and build a solution that actually enhances the institution?

Coming Next Week: Part II

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/bridging-the-scholarlyadministrative-divide-my-qa-with-daniel-weiss-metropolitan-museums-next-president-part-i.html/feed0http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/bridging-the-scholarlyadministrative-divide-my-qa-with-daniel-weiss-metropolitan-museums-next-president-part-i.htmlHard Times at Haverford: Recent Travails of Daniel Weiss, Metropolitan Museum’s Incoming Presidenthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artsjournal/XHaF/~3/K2ujPU0BSC4/hard-times-at-haverford-recent-travails-of-daniel-weiss-metropolitan-museums-incoming-president.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/hard-times-at-haverford-recent-travails-of-daniel-weiss-metropolitan-museums-incoming-president.html#respondThu, 12 Mar 2015 16:09:18 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/?p=17091More on this here and here. Daniel Weiss‘ attractiveness as incoming president of the Metropolitan Museum—a post he is to assume this summer–derives more from his deep knowledge of art history than from his brief, mixed record as Haverford College’s president. With an art history PhD from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from Yale, this […]]]>

Daniel Weiss‘ attractiveness as incoming president of the Metropolitan Museum—a post he is to assume this summer–derives more from his deep knowledge of art history than from his brief, mixed record as Haverford College’s president.

Daniel Weiss, Metropolitan Museum’s incoming president

With an art history PhD from Johns Hopkins and an MBA from Yale, this Medieval Studies specialist has a double-barreled background that is increasingly common among art museums’ directors but is not often found among their presidents.

Weiss’ official bio on Haverford’s website details his professional accomplishments since arriving there in 2013—among them, “investing in core academic disciplines that support new interdisciplinary teaching and scholarship, strengthening physical and technological infrastructure, and enhancing institutional commitments to sustainability and diversity.” Also listed are details about his previous stints as a dean, art history professor and department chair at Johns Hopkins University, and as president of Lafayette College from 2005 to 2013.

But, as briefly noted in Susan Snyder‘s Philadelphia Inquirer report on his Met appointment, Weiss’ short tenure at Haverford, a small liberal arts institution, was marred by two vexing episodes: a widely publicized uproar over a controversial commencement speaker (who ultimately withdrew); a less publicly contentious but more consequential decision to cut costs by changing the five-year-old policy of giving direct financial aid (rather than loans) to all students deemed to be in need of assistance.

These incidents shed some light on Weiss’ management-under-pressure skills and may also suggest why he might not feel much compunction about leaving his current gig prematurely.

As reported by Thy Anh Vo in The Clerk, Haverford’s student newspaper, the college’s no-loan financial aid policy will be replaced, starting with the Class of 2019, with a plan to offer “loans [rather than straight aid] for students with a family income above $60,000 a year.” (Needier students will continue to receive no-loan financial aid.) This change “is projected to eliminate $820,000 a year in financial aid costs,” The Clerk reported. Unsurprisingly, an ad hoc student group, Fords for Affordability, strongly objected to this change.

The blow-up over the choice of Robert Birgeneau, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, as an honorary degree recipient and speaker for last May’s commencement ceremony ultimately impelled Weiss to publish an op-ed piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer, defending, on free-speech grounds, his continued support of Birgeneau’s selection.

One protester, Sam Warren, countered in a long essay that Weiss’ op-ed “whitewashes Birgeneau’s role in the violent suppression of student speech.” He was referring to Birgeneau’s 2011 oversight of the police dispersal, which turned violent, of Occupy Cal protests at UC Berkeley.

Weiss convened an open community meeting on this controversy and continued to support Birgeneau’s participation. But Birgeneau ultimately withdrew in the face of persistent student opposition. Weiss’ takeaway was that the college should “make positive changes to our honorary degree selection process to make sure that it is more reflective of the views of the community and especially the students whose achievements we celebrate.”

It would seem that the decision, on Weiss’ watch, to cut back on future financial aid bespeaks his failure to raise adequate funds to support it. With the benefit of hindsight, it also seems clear that the commencement speaker was ill chosen, notwithstanding his record (cited by Weiss) as “a longtime advocate for LGBT rights, faculty diversity, and access and affordability for the middle class as well as undocumented students.”

The ultimate insult to the students and the college was the tongue-lashing they received at their own graduation from commencement speaker William Bowen, former president of Princeton, who blasted the protestors for being “immature” and “arrogant” and characterized Birgeneau’s withdrawal as “a defeat, pure and simple, for Haverford.”

The way this controversy played out under Weiss’ oversight, a bad situation became even worse.

Whether all this has any relevance to how Weiss will perform at the Met remains to be seen. Randy Kennedy sowed some doubts in his NY Times report on the appointment by noting that the Met is a far larger operation, in terms of staff and budget, than Haverford. The museum also plays more conspicuously on an international stage.

The Met’s supremely accomplished staff will undoubtedly provide Weiss with expert guidance and mentoring. But its two most deeply experienced administrators responsible for areas under Weiss’ direct purview—current president Emily Rafferty, and senior vice president for government relations and public affairs Harold Holzer—will both have left the building by the time he arrives.

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/hard-times-at-haverford-recent-travails-of-daniel-weiss-metropolitan-museums-incoming-president.html/feed0http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/hard-times-at-haverford-recent-travails-of-daniel-weiss-metropolitan-museums-incoming-president.htmlSotheby’s Annual Report: Doubled Cap on Guarantees; Reduced Profits Attributable to Investor Activismhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artsjournal/XHaF/~3/JalNY39Oud0/sothebys-annual-report-doubled-cap-on-guarantees-reduced-profits-attributable-to-investor-activism.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/sothebys-annual-report-doubled-cap-on-guarantees-reduced-profits-attributable-to-investor-activism.html#respondThu, 05 Mar 2015 23:31:35 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/?p=17071As revealed in its 2014 Annual Report, released on Monday, Sotheby’s sustained a 9% drop in its net income (profits), compared to 2013. Its profitability has been under close scrutiny ever since activist investor Dan Loeb launched his attack on management. But this drop in profitability seems less significant after analyzing what caused it: Last […]]]>

As revealed in its 2014 Annual Report, released on Monday, Sotheby’s sustained a 9% drop in its net income (profits), compared to 2013. Its profitability has been under close scrutiny ever since activist investor Dan Loeb launched his attack on management.

But this drop in profitability seems less significant after analyzing what caused it: Last year’s $12 million decline in net income (from $130 million in 2013 to $118 million in 2014) wouldn’t have happened were it not for the $20 million in expenses directly related to shareholder activism, the resulting proxy contest with Loeb’s Third Point and related shareholder litigation.

On top of that, there was a cost of $14.2 million related to the restructuring plan intended to boost future profits, and another $7.6 million in costs related to the activist investor-driven resignation of Sotheby’s CEO Bill Ruprecht (still serving until his replacement is found). All of these anomalous one-offs have nothing to do with the core business.

“Adjusted net income,” adding back those one-off expenses, was actually up 9% (not down 9%) from the previous year.

Completely under the radar, buried deep in the annual report, were the revelations regarding “auction guarantees”—the negotiated minimum sale prices guaranteed to consignors for certain properties. The cap for “net outstanding auction guarantees” (the value of the guarantees after deducting the impact of related risk- and reward-sharing arrangements, such as third-party guarantees) was doubled—raised from $300 million in May to $600 million, according to the latest annual report.

The actual amount of outstanding guarantees as of Feb. 25, 2015 was only $79.5 million, partly offset by irrevocable bids from third parties totaling $28.2 million. Guarantees tend to ramp up in advance of major evening sales of Impressionist, modern and contemporary works.

Guarantees help the auction houses to snare desirable artworks, but they can prove costly if bidding fails to reach the level of the guaranteed price. This is what some observers believed may have happened with major lots at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s last fall. (The auction houses don’t disclose the details of their individual guarantees, nor how they fared. Christie’s, unlike Sotheby’s, is not publicly traded and provides little transparency about its finances.)

Ruprecht had told stock analysts in last November’s conference call that guarantees in that month’s Impressionist sales had been “meaningfully profitable.” The annual report now provides more details on what “meaningfully” may mean:

In 2014, the net loss from Sotheby’s auction guarantee and inventory activities increased by $13.3 million [from $2.17 million in 2013 to $15.46 million in $2014], principally due to losses incurred on certain guaranteed property [emphasis added] offered at auction during the current year.

When evaluating the performance of Sotheby’s portfolio of auction guarantees, management takes into consideration the total net revenue earned on guaranteed property offered at auction, which includes any auction commission revenues earned, as well as any guarantee overage or shortfall. On this basis, in 2014, Sotheby’s portfolio of auction guarantees was profitable.

Sotheby’s has rebuffed activist investors’ calls for a major return of capital to shareholders, saying that it wants to involve its as-yet-unnamed new CEO in making such decisions.

Whoever takes that job will have his work cut out for him (or her) in steering this storm-tossed boat into calmer waters.

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/sothebys-annual-report-doubled-cap-on-guarantees-reduced-profits-attributable-to-investor-activism.html/feed0http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/03/sothebys-annual-report-doubled-cap-on-guarantees-reduced-profits-attributable-to-investor-activism.htmlISIS Crisis: Archaeologist Pedro Azara, UNESCO, AAMD & AIA on the Mosul Museum Attack UPDATEDhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artsjournal/XHaF/~3/pftjKysGd_Q/isis-crisis-archaeologist-pedro-azara-unesco-aamd-aia-on-the-mosul-museum-attack.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/02/isis-crisis-archaeologist-pedro-azara-unesco-aamd-aia-on-the-mosul-museum-attack.html#respondFri, 27 Feb 2015 18:42:54 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/?p=17056In light of news reports that some of the objects seen being smashed by members of ISIS in videos widely circulated yesterday may have been replicas, I have sought clarification from the Metropolitan Museum (which yesterday issued a forceful statement decrying the destruction) and from archaeologist Pedro Azara, who had worked on a dig near Mosul […]]]>

In light of news reports that some of the objects seen being smashed by members of ISIS in videos widely circulated yesterday may have been replicas, I have sought clarification from the Metropolitan Museum (which yesterday issued a forceful statement decrying the destruction) and from archaeologist Pedro Azara, who had worked on a dig near Mosul and had described unstable conditions there when I chatted with him in New York two weeks ago at a press preview for an exhibition he co-curated at the Institute for the Study for the Ancient World.

I haven’t yet heard back from the Met [see update at bottom], but Azara, a professor of aesthetics and the theory of art at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, responded immediately.

Pedro AzaraPhoto by Lee Rosenbaum

Here’s what Azara wrote:

A professor living in Baghdad, from Mosul, told me yesterday that most of the material at the Mosul museum had been taken to Baghdad. But there was some discussion about whether some of the material had returned to Mosul. I think Iraqi authorities are keeping most of the items in storerooms that are not always at the National Museum in Iraq.

Some of the statues [smashed by Islamic State members] are obviously copies. They broke very easily, and the interior of them was pure white—plaster while. The fact that a statue had an iron piece would be, on the contrary, a sign that it is genuine. [This contradicts comments by Mark Altaweel of the Institute of Archaeology at University College, London, to the UK’s Channel 4 News, who said the presence iron bars meant they were replicas: “The originals don’t have iron bars.”]

The statue must have been found broken and repaired in the 20th century with these irons pieces—as happens with so many classical sculptures—even if these iron pieces are not used any more today. When the statue was pulled down yesterday, it broke following the ancient break.

So I feel that most of the statues were copies: There are many Hatra statues in Iraqi museums that are plaster copies, but not all are. The winged lion must be the only original that remains—or remained—on the spot.

Destruction of this kind has always taken place. We have just to remember the destruction during the civil war in Spain, when churches and cathedrals were almost demolished.

But this is no excuse.

After I posted about the Mosul Museum yesterday, the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), Archaeological Institute of America (AIA), Society for American Archaeology (SAA), and the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR) issued a joint statement “call[ing] on authorities, even in these unsettled times, to do what they can to protect the world’s archaeological and cultural materials.”

The statement continued:

We urge museums and archaeological communities around the world to alert the appropriate international authorities if they believe they have information regarding objects recently stolen from Mosul. While the full extent of the damage to Iraq’s cultural heritage will only become clear after greater stability is restored, the material culture from more than 5,000 years of history is under extremely serious threat and we must take immediate action.

This attack is far more than a cultural tragedy. This is also a security issue, as it fuels sectarianism, violent extremism and conflict in Iraq…. I have immediately seized the president of the Security Council to ask him to convene an emergency meeting of the Security Council on the protection of Iraq’s cultural heritage as an integral element for the country’s security.

UPDATE: Here’s what a spokesperson from the Met has now told me:

It’s impossible to know from videos [whether the destroyed objects are originals]. Our curators say that some are unquestionably authentic, not casts.

]]>http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/02/isis-crisis-archaeologist-pedro-azara-unesco-aamd-aia-on-the-mosul-museum-attack.html/feed0http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/02/isis-crisis-archaeologist-pedro-azara-unesco-aamd-aia-on-the-mosul-museum-attack.htmlMetropolitan Museum Decries “Catastrophic Destruction” of Mosul Museum’s Collectionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/artsjournal/XHaF/~3/VPO1hnN69wk/metropolitan-museum-decries-catastrophic-destruction-of-mosul-museums-collection.html
http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/02/metropolitan-museum-decries-catastrophic-destruction-of-mosul-museums-collection.html#respondThu, 26 Feb 2015 20:14:56 +0000http://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/?p=17039Tom Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum, was among those sickened by the videos released today by Islamic State (to which I shall not link) showing militants smashing archaeological artifacts (which they regard as forms of idolatry) from Iraq’s Mosul Museum. The museum was also looted during the 2003 Iraq war. Here in full is […]]]>

Tom Campbell, director of the Metropolitan Museum, was among those sickened by the videos released today by Islamic State (to which I shall not link) showing militants smashing archaeological artifacts (which they regard as forms of idolatry) from Iraq’s Mosul Museum.

Speaking with great sadness on behalf of the Metropolitan, a museum whose collection proudly protects and displays [emphasis added] the arts of ancient and Islamic Mesopotamia, we strongly condemn this act of catastrophic destruction to one of the most important museums in the Middle East.

The Mosul Museum’s collection covers the entire range of civilization in the region, with outstanding sculptures from royal cities such as Nimrud, Nineveh, and Hatra in northern Iraq. This mindless attack on great art, on history, and on human understanding constitutes a tragic assault not only on the Mosul Museum, but on our universal commitment to use art to unite people and promote human understanding. Such wanton brutality must stop, before all vestiges of the ancient world are obliterated.

In an NPR segment last July, Christopher Dickey, foreign editor of the Daily Beast, described the importance of the holdings of the Mosul Museum, which was then under Islamic State’s control:

What’s at risk are some beautiful monumental sculptures, these winged figures, lions and bulls, with the faces of bearded men—Kings, that clearly were idols in the time of the Assyrians but that are now part and parcel of the history of Western civilization and biblical history especially.

And then we’ve also got gorgeous gold jewelry which certainly will go onto the black market and all kinds of smaller pieces of sculpture, earthenware, the kinds of things that give you the texture as well as the beauty of life in that period. So it’s a rich museum but all of that collection is now in the hands of ISIS….

What is in the museum in Mosul has not been destroyed, not yet. But the people who are occupying the museum were very explicit and said we are just waiting for the orders when to do it.

Now they’ve done it. We had months of warning. Are we powerless to arrest the ruthless destruction of world heritage and, more importantly, of innocent lives?

As it happened, I chatted two weeks ago with Pedro Azara, professor of aesthetics and the theory of art at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, who had been working on an archaeological dig at a Neo-Assyrian site near Mosul, in the area now occupied by Islamic State. He was at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York, as co-curator of an exhibition of ancient Mesopotamian objects (including a standing male figure loaned by the Met), juxtaposed with modern and contemporary works inspired by them.

Pedro Azara, right, with Jennifer Chi, director of exhibitions & chief curator of Institute for the Study of the Ancient WorldPhoto by Lee Rosenbaum

Azara told me that “apparently there is no visible damage” to the archaeological site where he had worked. “But you cannot go there. You cannot stay near the site because it is too dangerous, because it is too near Mosul.”

Pedro added:

We thought they [the occupiers] would have begun to dig in search of objects [to be converted to cash]. The good thing is that Islamic State stayed for only 10 days on the site, so we suppose that not too much damage could have been produced. You have to dig a lot to get to the Neo-Assyrian strata. So we hope that nothing important has happened.